American Express (AmEx) has become a part of the blockchain revolution by joining the Hyperledger Project as a premier member. The New York-based financial services company will contribute to the development of the project’s mission to create enterprise-grade, open source, distributed ledger technology.

Sastry Durvasula, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Technology Head of Data and Digital capabilities at AmEx, will represent the company on the Hyperledger Governing Board. Durvasula will be responsible for leading enterprise-wide big data, blockchain technology, digital payments and partnerships.

“We’re excited to join Hyperledger, as we’re looking to take full advantage of blockchain to deliver new and innovative products for our customers and partners, while transforming existing business processes and applications,” said Marc Gordon, American Express executive vice president and CIO in a statement. “As a premier member of the project, we’re expecting our expertise and global reach to help advance this open source blockchain ecosystem.”

An article from Nasdaq sheds light on some of the previous moves American Express has made in this particular play. In 2014, the New York Times reported that American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault, said that “the protocol of Bitcoin is going to be important,” comparing it to the P2P services that have driven disruptive change in the music industry. A year later, American Express invested in a blockchain company named Abra which seeks to take a slice of the USD 550 billion global remittance market. Abra wants to become the “Uber of digital cash” by combining an Uber-like peer-to-peer network with smartphone technology and the blockchain.

“It’s always encouraging to see large, global organisations like American Express join Hyperledger,” said Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger. “As the project continues to grow and take shape, I believe support from leading organisations and their expertise will drive successful pilots of Hyperledger blockchain technology into production later this year.”

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